The Guernsey FinTech Hackathon promises to generate a great deal of interest and participation from the business, entrepreneurial and tech community in Guernsey. The event is organised by the Digital Greenhouse and Startup Guernsey with the support of lead sponsor KPMG and prize sponsor C5 Alliance.

Where

The FinTech Hackathon took place from 7pm on 9th till 10am on 11th October in The Rotunda at the i2 Offices, Royal Chambers, St Julian's Avenue, St Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 2HH.

The Hackathon lasted for 36 hours and saw teams working on a variety of digital solutions for FinTech based issues over the weekend ending at 10am on the Sunday more details of the weekend, teams that entered and the winners can be seen below.

Why
FinTech?

The current digital age brings with it new challenges and significant opportunities for the finance sector.

FinTech has become a general term used for any technology applied to financial services, from existing systems to new entrants and new consumer products competing with or disrupting the traditional way business has been done.

There continues to be an exceptional level of worldwide investment to stimulate and develop new and relevant innovations in this sector.

The Digital Greenhouse and the States of Guernsey’s Commerce & Employment department are investing in supporting the development of the Island’s proposition in the FinTech sector.

This and other activity in this area by private businesses and professional service companies will continue to increase the potential volume of interest in what the Island is doing and who are the leading parties to engage with.

Why a
Hackathon?

Many companies and communities have embraced hackathons to stimulate effective collaboration between people with diverse backgrounds and skillsets and to rapidly generate and develop new ideas around specific themes or challenges.

The word ‘hackathon’ has entered into the mainstream vocabulary. Major global corporations and governments supports the idea, including the British Government as it opens up its Big Data to the community and encourages groups to “hack” the data to create useful products and services for society

Given the potential within FinTech, FinTech hackathons have become prevalent.

Everyone - no matter if they are a developer, designer or a financial services professional - learnt something, met someone new and had the opportunity to develop new and exciting FinTech propositions.

A hackathon event is usually held over 24 - 48 hours and often results in new products or features being conceived, coded and demonstrated.

Video

Here is a short video from the Guernsey FinTech Hackathon 2015.

Teams

The Hackathon had entiries from 7 teams, these ranged in size, age and backgrounds.

(Photos by Carl Symes)

Beanjar (C5 Alliance)

The Idea

An app and website that teaches children the value of money and encourages them to save using gamification. It allows them to store money to save up for items and they can earn ‘stickers’ for saving certain amounts. It also includes a function that allows them to donate to charity. Leader boards will then show which kids have saved and donated the most.

How it works

The user will create an account which can be used by both children and parents. The child will be able to control their spending using the app to visualize how one thing affects another, the parents can then set targets or other parameters such as chores and values.

Built With

Structured Query Language (SQL) Azure database

Azure Website with continuous deployment linked to a BitBucket repository

Having started at the Jersey Hackathon earlier the year, the Give.gg team developed their concept further for a local platform for the donating of money and time which brings together payment processes for charities through an aggregator website.

How it works

The site would have the ability to accept single money donations by Barclays PINGIT technology, or regular monthly donations via card, standing order or direct debit, etc. These payments are then disbursed regularly to the Charities. With this method there would be tax and cost saving benefits for Charities, individuals and corporates to use the online platform.

It would also have a feature to pull all social media links Facebook, Twitter, Photos etc to use the site as a central location for all charity information exchange in Guernsey.

Built with

Website built with Meteor.

FIN.CHECK (KPMG)

The Idea

An app and website help to streamline and digitise expenses claims for companies.

How it works

The system allows companies to load money for each employee to the app which they can then use to pay for things they would normally expense e.g. meals out, stationary.

Built with

C#, ASP.net, MVC, SQL server, NFC.

Learn 2 Earn (Anjali Ayres)

The Idea

An App or website that teaches children the value of money by rewarding them for doing extra school work and chores. It engages parents and prompts them to keep on setting chores for points rewards.

How it works

‘Learn 2 Earn’ rewards children with points for answering questions, 2 points for a correct answer and 1 point for a wrong answer, with the aim to encourage them to answer more questions. They can then use the points to buy items from the Amazon marketplace. The is also a function to upload any duplicate toys they have to sell on the marketplace.

There is also an element for parents to add chores or tasks daily so that their child can earn a maximum number of points a day.

Built with

.NET with SQL server

Fraud Angel

The Idea

System designed to detect fraud before it has occurred by monitoring the behaviours of staff to identify employees who may be driven to fraud. It also improves the whistleblowing system internal reporting.

How it works

Emails from the organisation are sent via a secure mechanism to encrypted cloud storage. An analytics engine then interrogates the emails looking for specific keywords and themes from the fraud triangle in order to identify an employee that might be exhibiting signs of committing fraud.

Built with

Atom, Filezilla/Putty, Firefox.

In addition the system can be used to perform analysis to assist the whistle blowing process for internal employees.

See-ID

The Idea

To improve the current KYC/CCD/AML process using data from passports and other identifiers to streamline and secure the process for companies and individuals.

How it works

The innovation is a device App that can be downloaded remotely by the applicant. It allows them to scan and decrypt the embedded RFID chip of their passport or ID document using NFC (which proves that the original was considered) and then allows them to collect data using their device to support the fact they are the legal owner of the document presented and, if they are not the legal owner, it collects adequate information to identify their real identity.

Built with

Thin client: Java, eclipse

Fat server: ASP.NET, SQL server

The Fins (Robo.Biz)

The Idea

A simulation game that helps individuals and businesses experiment in the FinTech space. It would allow individuals to ‘play’ setting up a business and choose between traditional and emergent ways of carrying out business.

How it works

The simulation game would involve players going through the process of starting up a business which then would introduce the player to various different FinTech products available.

The game would also give a platform for businesses to test new FinTech products to see if they would work.

Judging

Judging Panel

Marc Laine (C5)

Neale Jehan (KPMG)

Jennifer Strachan (Startup Guernsey)

Nick Vermeulen (FinTech and Digital Oversight Group)

Judging Criteria

Winners

These are the winners of the FinTech Hackathon 2015, the prizes were kindly sponsored by KPMG and C5 Alliance, each prize also included a trophy that was 3D printed by Adrian Ritchie from Makerspace Guernsey.

The winners were a team from C5 Alliance with an app and website that encourages children to save using gamification. It allows them to store money to save up for items and they can earn ‘stickers’ for saving certain amounts. It also includes a feature that allows them to donate to charity. Leader boards will then show which kids have saved and donated the most.

Team BeanJar have said that they will include Anjali Ayres (winner of the 'What the FinTech' prize) and her school friends in the development and testing of their app and site

2nd Prize - Give.gg

£750 Cash

7.5 Hours Professional Services from KPMG

7.5 Hours Development Services from C5 Alliance

(Team Give.gg Photo by Carl Symes)

Starting in the Jersey Hackathon ealier this year, the team from Give.gg continued work on the concept for a local platform for the donating of money and time. During the weekend they also looked at the introduction of using Barclays Pingit.

3rd Prize - FIN.CHECK

£200 Cash

2.5 Hours Professional Service Services from KPMG

2.5 Hours Development Services from C5 Alliance

(Team FIN.CHECK Photo by Carl Symes)

The FIN.CHECK team from KPMG created solution to help streamline and digitise expenses claims for companies. The system allows companies to load money for each employee to the app which they can then use to pay for things they would normally expense e.g. meals out, stationary.

What the FinTech? Prize - Learn 2 Earn

£50 Cash

Learn 2 earn was the big surprise of the weekend, entered by 7 year old Anjali Ayres, she inspired the judges with her innovative idea and passion for the competition.

The idea was an app that rewards children with points for answering questions correctly. The points can then be used to buy items from the Amazon marketplace. They can also upload any duplicate toys they have to sell on the marketplace. There is an element for parents who can reward their children with points as payment for chores.

A blog about the Hackathon weekend written by Jennifer Strachan can be found here.

Schedule

Friday

19.00 - Doors opened

The event started off with individuals and teams finding a space and meeting everyone. This included some last minute recruitment of individuals to some of the teams.

19.30 - Pizza arrived!

20.00 - Start! The hackathon officially begins!

Friday night saw some teams jumping right into the Hackathon and developing their products along with others taking the time to work on the ideas before getting started on Saturday morning.

Saturday

07.30 - Tea, coffee and pastries arrived.

Throughout the day the teams kept going!

19.00 - Pizza arrived!

Throughout the night some teams finished and others stayed late into the night to complete their ideas and presentations ready for the morning.

Sunday

07.30 - Tea, Coffee and pastries arrived

10.00 - The Hackathon Stopped! Teams were given time to relax and prepare for the presentations.

10.30 - Presentations!

Teams presented their ideas to the judges and audiences. Each team was allocated 8 minutes (4 minutes presentation/ demo and 4 minutes for Q&A).

12.00 - The Winners were announced!

The prizes were then given and everyone heads home for a well deserved rest.

Details of the teams that entered and the winners can be seen below.

Who's
Involved

Lead sponsor:

Main prize sponsor:

Organisers:

It was a fantastic event and we would like to thank everyone involved.